Comments about ‘My view: Mixed messages about air quality’

An editorial from the Tribune claims that the Kennecott operations contribute
about one third of the pollution to the Salt Lake Valley during one of our
winter inversions.

A Kennecott spokesman was on Radio West with
Doug Fabrizio last week and he was slicing and dicing the numbers so cleverly
that all I remember about Kennecott air pollution is that Rio Tinto sponsors a
little league team in Herriman! It didn't help that Fabrizio was lobbing
softballs over the plate for the Kennecott guy the whole hour.

It
would be nice to get accurate air pollution numbers we could all agree upon.

Perhaps also - legislators and DEQ staff should either move within walking
distance to work or bike to work!Please - anyone who hears this
"nonsense" about how those who are trying to do something about the
pollution get to their meetings or rallies - ask those pointing the fingers to
explain what they are doing to lessen their pollution.Vehicle pollution is
a concern and curtailing it will never be the only solution to this problem -
Industrial/corporate pollution MUST be addressed ALSO and NOW.I believe
that the only possible solution to this problem (due to the inaction, for
whatever reason), of our State government and DEQ, is for EPA to retake control
of environmental matters (permitting, etc.) in this State.

Well spoken, Ingrid. While Utah is known by some for its well-managed economy,
it's never recognized for have logical leaders. The number of annual
contradictions manifest by the governor's office and the legislature in
truly astounding. I can assure you today none of them will even understand the
logical fallacies you point out in your op-ed piece. We keep electing people to
do the same old things, just like the movie, “Ground Hog Day.” Our
children are mere fodder for Utah’s altars built to worship a form of
capitalism that is disappearing cross the world. Now and in the future, citizen
are increasingly demanding an ethical economy where business and government work
together to actually improve the quality of community life, create more and
better jobs, enjoy a balanced decision-making process with socially responsible
corporations and humane values. To do these things requires a shift from short
term thinking to having a long term vision for change.

While I agree with the intent of the piece, it really does take a one sided
view. Never will I be called a "conservative" by Utah conservatives,
but Industry has been doing a lot to reduce airborne particulate. Take Union
Pacific. The last generation of locomotives are being replaced by much more
economical and clean burning locomotives by EMD and GE. You don't have to
go back very far in Salt Lake's history to remember the cloud of diesel
soot that hovered over the UP yard. This upgrade has been hugely expensive to
UP.

The EPA is clamping down hard on the emissions that refiners can
pump into the air. All you have to do is see how much noise the Koch brothers
have been kicking up through their surrogate non-profits like American's
(aka the Koch Brothers themselves) for American (again aka Koch Brothers)
property.

I say these things very carefully, because in full
disclosure, the oil industry is responsible for about 80% of my income now days.
But these companies are investing heavily in controls to avoid problems.

So while you don't see it, industry is being asked to change how
they do business.

Very easy for people to complain about industry causing all our problems. Not so
easy to take responsibility and face up to the fact that single-occupant
vehicles are the primary cause of pollution along the Wasatch Front (almost 60%
of PM2.5). Major industrial sources like Kennecott, the refineries, etc are only
~10%. The other ~30% is homes, businesses, and small industry. (Source: DEQ.) We
couldn't fix this by just targeting industry, even if we shut them down
entirely and drove all those jobs out of state.

Very easy for
politicians like Herbert to say "let's all drive less!" and then do
nothing of substance. Not so easy to actually take the (not always popular)
measures necessary to change people's incentives to protect our future.

We've got to take the politically difficult steps - higher gas tax,
zoning and planning that discourage sprawl, infrastructural investments, etc- to
help change the way people live and commute in this state or this
already-disgusting situation will turn into a full-scale tragedy.

VST - Please note that the graphic on the daq website, which you refer to has
no labels. Which pollutants are they measuring? Which geographic region are
they describing? SLC? Wasatch Front? The whole state? Is this based on 24
hour averages? One hour averages? This matters. Perhaps industry is only 11%
for the whole state, but that might be drastically different if we narrowed the
focus to the Wasatch Front. Maybe industry put out less of one pollutant and
cars more of another, so which pollutants they are counting also matters. But
that information is not given. Whatever the numbers, All pollution matters in
this limited airshed.